I love everything about this book. As an avid reader, I'm constantly making personal connections to the author and the book. I had never heard about the Letters About Literature contest that the Library of Congress puts on. It's such a great idea! "Journeys Young Readers' Letters to Authors Who Changed Their Lives" would be ideal for those who teach upper elementary to high school as the letters are from the students grade 4-12.

As an aspiring author, I loved seeing these letters! It's so amazing to see how a story can help change someone's life, and gives it's readers a new perspective.

Books have the power to change lives and this collection offers the opportunity to peer into the lives of both reader and author and see just how powerful the connection between writer and reader can become. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and along the way found myself encountering favorite books of mine and how they had influenced others, as well as books that I had not read yet, or encountered as an assigned text in school years ago that had not resonated with me, all finding their way back onto the "to be read (possibly again)" list.

I would love to read this book with students who are working on narrative essay and have the opportunity to discuss the power of writing on an audience. There are numerous ways to blend this books with author studies, personal narrative writing requirements, and opinion/ reflection writing!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in return for a fair and honest review.

I expected these to be more like real letters from real kids to authors they really liked. Instead they read like essays entitled "The book that changed my life", essays intended more to impress a teacher than to convey any true sentiment. The vocabulary is overly formal.

There is a certain catharsis that can be found in reading the right book at the right time. This book celebrates that via 52 letters from young readers who are still in school to the authors who marked their lives.

One of my favorite activities to do with junior high students came from the Library of Congress Center for the Book. Each year, in a Letters About Literature contest, students wrote to an author, living or dead, telling him or her how the author’s book had changed or influenced their lives. The challenge often lay in convincing students not to write a book report but to chat with the author, reacting to words that were meaningful to them. Once they understood the object, the authors they chose and personal applications were wide-ranging and extremely interesting to their teacher.

Now Candlewick has produced a book, Journeys: Young Readers Letters to Authors Who Have Changed Their Lives, with selections from the contest’s national winners in three age categories – upper elementary, middle school, and high school, grouped by ages and within those ages by stages of a journey – destination, realization, and return home. Student selections range from classic writers like Robert Frost and Anne Frank to modern writers like J. K. Rowling and Laurie Halse Anderson. Just in case the reader is not familiar with the work the student references, a short passage about the work and author come before each reader’s letter. Editors did minimal editing in order to retain the student writer’s voice.

Jayanth responds to Sharon Draper’s book Out of My Mind by describing how the book helped her understand the survival instinct of her brother who has a form of autism causing difficulty expressing himself. Anna takes on several levels of understanding from Shel Silvestein’s poem “Hug o’War,” – first when she was seven and it brought a reminder of a lost tooth in a tug of war with her brother, second when she was nine for the camaraderie she felt as she shared it in a class recitation and the idea of being kinder to each other came through, and finally as a current eleven-year-old with a greater message for the world at large. Becky, who lost her mother to cancer a month before she wrote the letter, finds comfort in remembering her mother’s voice as she picks up an old favorite, Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

I recommend the book to students and teachers who participate in the contest each year for models of responses to authors. Beyond that, the variety makes a good read for anyone looking for ways books change readers or for those seeking book selections for themselves or as gifts for young people in upper elementary through high school.

Before I leave this review entirely, I must say I was extremely proud the year one of my students placed third in the Louisiana contest and had an event at the local library where a representative of the Louisiana State Libraries presented her award.

I really liked reading this book! As an avid letter-writer, I loved getting to read letters to authors, especially authors of books that I love :)

Overall I did enjoy reading this book but won't be recommending this book to friends because it's not something I feel like my friends would enjoy very much. I really liked it, and might recommend it to a librarian friend of mine, but know my other friends wouldn't be as interested.

That being said, I think this is an amazing book and I'm so happy I got the chance to read it!

We all know that books change lives. And if you are a longtime bookheart, you know that I started as a very young reader and give credit to certain authors for shaping my youth with colorful stories. Well finally we have a book to prove it: Journeys: Young Readers' Letters to Authors Who Changed Their Lives. This collection is 52 letters from the Library of Congress' Letters About Literature contest.

There is nothing like sharing thoughts about a book you and a friend have read. It is an automatic connection with another human being; the written word is a powerful thing to have in common. Reading this collection brought a smile to my face and a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that the same books I read in my youth also had an effect on today's young readers. It was enlightening to read letters by students in grades four to twelve tell how their lives changed.

For example, The Long Winter made a student understand what it feels like to worry about not having enough food. It wasn't always easy as going to the store. Another student related to Shades of Black because she is the "gingery brown in a cookie" and knows that diversity is a good thing. And most of all, one student had the same thoughts as me when I read Lord of the Flies in the eighth grade: stand up to the Jack in your life. If not, it can lead to group mind. Let us not forget the classic authors, Dr. Seuss and Judy Blume, whose work also impacted young readers.

I highly recommend this book for middle to high school students, teachers and parents. It is a great reference to discovering authors you, or your child, might not have read. It is especially a great guide for parents (like mine) who encouraged summer reading. Gift this to the young bookheart in your life and challenge him/her to write a letter of their own. Encourage young bookhearts to put down the game console, TV remote and iPad. Pick up a book and read.

Happy Early Pub Day! Journeys: Young Readers' Letters to Authors Who Changed Their Lives will be available on August 1, 2017.

LiteraryMarie

Books have the power to change lives and this collection offers the opportunity to peer into the lives of both reader and author and see just how powerful the connection between writer and reader can become. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and along the way found myself encountering favorite books of mine and how they had influenced others, as well as books that I had not read yet, or encountered as an assigned text in school years ago that had not resonated with me, all finding their way back onto the "to be read (possibly again)" list.

I would love to read this book with students who are working on narrative essay and have the opportunity to discuss the power of writing on an audience. There are numerous ways to blend this books with author studies, personal narrative writing requirements, and opinion/ reflection writing!

This is a lovely title about the difference a book can make in a child's life! I would recommend this to middle and high school students, as well as teachers who are looking for strong book recommendations for their students. This will definitely give teachers titles that are bound to make an impact in their students' reading lives!

To quote Neil Gaiman ” A book is a dream that you hold in your hand”. Never is that more apparent when seeing the way children react and respond to books. Here are letters, real, heartfelt letters written by real kids, to the authors that have made all the difference in the world to them. I defy anyone to read this book without tearing up, or realizing the remarkable power of a good book to change lives. As a children’s librarian, I see it every day in my students, and it’s nothing short of a miracle. Authors, good authors, can change the lives of anyone who opens their books. Please, for the sake of our children and our world, read this book and fight to keep your public libraries open. Those authors have the power to save all of us

This book elucidates both the value of reading for children and the need for diversity in publishing! A girl preparing for her bat mitzvah connected with Anne Frank's conviction to die as a Jew rather than wear a mask all her life. Another girl whose father is from Eritrea never understood his experiences from back home as much until reading about pioneers. This black daughter of an imprisoned man learnt to cope with his absence reading about parental loss. A brown sister of a boy with Autism grew to understand him more as she read about a child with cerebral palsy. A multiracial child reads about history and further grasps her grandfather's role as a black Panther and Jewish grandmother's participation in the civil rights movement. Reading Lord of the Flies helps a child realise they do not want to be manipulated into hurting others by peer pressure. A daughter of a mother with substance abuse issues reads about suicide and commits to living her life to the very fullest. A granddaughter copes with her eighty-four year old family member's declining health thanks to a newfound appreciation of the holistic approach taken in Native culture after reading an Athabascan legend. A child challenges earlier Islamophobic stereotypes after reading about Afghanistan. A girl draws parallels between how a protagonist copes with being raped and how she was hiding from health issues, motivating her to become more proactive. Another connects with her Puerto Rican identity after reading about a young hijabi's decision to cover. A Pakistani daughter comes to appreciate her mother's roots after reading of newcomer struggles. In juvenile detention, a young man questions how to change his path after reading about a futuristic world. A coming of age novel propels a girl to challenge societal standards of beauty. A grandchild of Holocaust survivors connects with their past after reading a memoir. Everyone should read this!